NVIDIA GTX TITAN vs. SLI & Crossfire

When we first reviewed NVIDIA’s new GTX TITAN, there was one notable absence from our comparisons: SLI and Crossfire. After countless requests and no small amount of retesting due to an aggressive driver release schedule from AMD and NVIDIA, this review will finally see high end multi card solutions against NVIDIA’s spectacularly expensive GTX TITAN.

Most gamers’ interest in this area focuses on getting the best solution for their money. Now that may sound like an oxymoron considering the $1000 needed to get a single TITAN into your system, but even elitists want to know which setup will give them the best gaming experience. Whether or not that means spending a grand is immaterial when striving for performance above all else. This also re-sparks the age old battle between a single powerful card versus two less expensive models.

On paper the TITAN faces an uphill battle in its quest for superiority. Not only is it currently one of the most expensive cards on the market (NVIDIA’s GTX 690 and AMD’s HD 7990 share this top-tier as well) but availability has been spotty at best and its performance isn’t quite up to the level of similarly priced alternatives. However, since the TITAN doesn’t have to rely upon in-game multi card profiles, it does have a distinct advantage in terms of overall consistency.

As our readers have made abundantly clear, there are a number of dual GPU options which can be seen as less expensive alternatives to TITAN. For example, two reference GTX 680s can be found for $920 while a pair of GTX 670 cards are currently available for $740, shaving $80 and $260 respectively from the TITAN’s $1000 price .

On AMD’s side of the fence, two HD 7970 GHz Editions routinely go for $940 (if they can be found at all due to the popularity of AMD’s new Never Settle gaming bundle) and the HD 7950 Boost Edition comes in at a mere $625 for a Crossfire setup. Every one of these could play the crasher in NVIDIA’s latest coming-out party so we’ve included them in this article.

Ultimately, the GTX TITAN costs a whole lot more than many of today’s most popular dual card setups, be they NVIDIA or AMD based. But does it actually bring any value to the table when compared directly against some of today’s most expensive setups?

More than four months after the launch of NVIDIA's GTX 1060, we take another look at its performance against AMD's RX 480 8GB in more than a dozen games. The results of this one may surprise you........